WEST POINT, N.Y. – The seventh-ranked Navy rifle team (9-7, 4-4 GARC) finished the first day of the Great American Rifle Conference Championship with a team score of 2,333 points in the smallbore portion of the competition.
Marleigh Duncan (Fr., Wake Forest, N.C.) led the Midshipmen with 592 points in the discipline, tying the individual smallbore scoring record for the second time in less than three weeks. The score was the highest among individual competitors, securing the smallbore individual championship for the freshman. Duncan becomes the first Midshipman to be crowned as a GARC individual champion since Navy joined the conference in 2014.
"We had a solid performance in smallbore today," said head coach
Mike Anti. "A few points shy of what we wanted, but all in all we are happy with the outcome. The highlight of today was putting two of our athletes,
Michael Zanti and
Marleigh Duncan, in the individual finals competition. Michael did great, finishing in eighth place, while Marleigh had an amazing final leading from start to finish and winning the individual conference championship. I was very proud of everyone's performance and we are looking forward to tomorrow's competition."
Reigning national champion Kentucky leads the team standings with 2,352 points with West Virginia just behind at 2,345 points. Ole Miss finished just ahead of the Mids with 2,343 points in third followed by Navy with the aforementioned score of 2,333 points.
Rounding out the top-five teams in the field after day one was Akron (2,325 points) followed by Army in sixth (2,323 points), Memphis in seventh (2,317 points) and North Carolina State (2,309 points).
In addition to the team-leading 592 by Duncan, senior standout
Michael Zanti (Sr., Norfolk, Va.) tallied a score of 588, tying his third-highest mark in the discipline this season and reaching the smallbore championship finals.
Stephanie Milvain (Fr., Matthews, N.C.) was third for the Mids with 580 points while
Clarissa Layland (So., Granbury, Texas) added a score of 573.
Rounding out the smallbore starting lineup for Navy was
Mark Amdahl (Sr., Albuquerque, N.M.) who tallied 571 points on the day. Designated as only a starter in air rifle for the championship,
McKenzie Shedd (Fr., Burke, Va.) recorded 577 points in the discipline, although it did not count towards Navy's 2,333-point total.
The Mids are slated to return to action Saturday at 8:30 a.m. for the air rifle portion of the GARC Championship.
